Edward Sapir (18841939). Language: An Introduction to the Study of Speech. 1921.

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transferable.4 I believe the distinction is entirely valid, though we never get the two levels pure in practice. Literature moves in language as a medium, but that medium comprises two layers, the latent content of languageour intuitive record of experienceand the particular conformation of a given languagethe specific how of our record of experience. Literature that draws its sustenance mainlynever entirelyfrom the lower level, say a play of Shakespeares, is translatable without too great a loss of character. If it moves in the upper rather than in the lower levela fair example is a lyric of Swinburnesit is as good as untranslatable. Both types of literary expression may be great or mediocre.

There is really no mystery in the distinction. It can be clarified a little by comparing literature with science. A scientific truth is impersonal, in its essence it is untinctured by the particular linguistic medium in which it finds expression. It can as readily deliver its message in Chinese5 as in English. Nevertheless it must have some expression, and that expression must needs be a linguistic one. Indeed the apprehension of the scientific truth is itself a linguistic process, for thought is

Note 4. The question of the transferability of art productions seems to me to be of genuine theoretic interest. For all that we speak of the sacrosanct uniqueness of a given art work, we know very well, though we do not always admit it, that not all productions are equally intractable to transference. A Chopin étude is inviolate; it moves altogether in the world of piano tone. A Bach fugue is transferable into another set of musical timbres without serious loss of esthetic significance. Chopin plays with the language of the piano as though no other language existed (the medium disappears); Bach speaks the language of the piano as a handy means of giving outward expression to a conception wrought in the generalized language of tone. [back]

Note 5. Provided, of course, Chinese is careful to provide itself with the necessary scientific vocabulary. Like any other language, it can do so without serious difficulty if the need arises. [back]